296

Records of a freight agent for the Philadelphia & Reading.

Williamsport, PA, 1916-1934
Thousands of documents (4 linear feet); many with filing punch holes in upper margins, incoming correspondence generally with minimal wear, the retained carbons generally brittle with moderate edge wear.

These are the office files of station agent Charles Clayton MacMinn (1874-1939), the Williamsport freight agent for the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company from 1917 to 1934. MacMinn dealt with the practical front line issues of railroad freight: negotiating shipping arrangements with his local coal mines and factories, managing a diverse workforce, battling against theft, introducing refrigerator cars, and sometimes bringing the circus to town.

The collection will be of interest to rail fans; it is certainly a local history collection with a focus on the Williamsport area of central Pennsylvania; but it also sheds light on broader early 20th century issues of immigration, racial prejudice, industrialization and labor conflict.

Our consignor has marked hundreds of the more interesting documents with descriptive Post-It notes, which is more useful than it may sound; most of the marked documents are actually interesting. Here are a few of the most dramatic.

Among World War One-related material is a 23 February 1918 memorandum on a message to federal food administrator Herbert Hoover, advising him that cars with food supplies for the Allied governments would be specially marked and expedited.

A 27 January 1922 memorandum explains the clever actions of a southwestern freight agent. Seeing that coal dust had settled on a carload of sugar sacks and worked its way into the bags, the agent rented vacuum cleaners and siphoned off the dirtiest parts "in such a way that you could hardly distinguish any coal dust particles in the sugar." The consignee still refused to take possession, but the sugar was sold to another buyer for more than the invoice price.

A 12 October 1922 letter describes a Pullman porter named Hackett who was arrested for possession of whiskey. MacMinn arranged to pay his bail, but then grew suspicious that Hackett was a bootlegger.

On 23 April 1923, MacMinn complains of "the Italians living in vicinity of my station, who have been making a toilet out of lawn in front of freight office," and then noted on 20 August 1923 that in the evenings he would "always find from twenty to thirty Italian children, the ages of five to fourteen, making a playground out of freight house yard."

A 19 September 1923 addresses the need to find "suitable sleeping quarters for the colored employees for the dining car. . . . I have found a colored man who will take these men at the rate of $3.00 per week. . . . The colored people of this city are confined to one section, which is near the Park Hotel, about twenty minutes walk from our station."

A 30 June 1926 letter about the shipment of a Wurlitzer organ to the city's Majestic Theater, detailing the route of the parts and the console; the freight traffic manager advised that 250 pounds of parts were already received, with "three to four tons" due in shortly from Reading. 

A file on transportation for circuses includes an 8 May 1929 freight contract for the 101 Ranch Wild West Show to deliver 9 coaches, 9 stock cars, 11 flat cars, and one advance car of show equipment

A whole file relates to a property rented by the railroad to the City Mission charity, 1932-1934. The railroad expressed concern that the property was being used by Italians and African Americans. Their real estate agent thus informed the mission on 2 February 1933 that "we would not care to have the property used for lodging purposes for colored people." 

On 14 April 1934, MacMinn notes that a local jewelry company complained of automobile damage from the Reading's tracks, and asks an investigator to see whether "the tire that was damaged was of any value." By way of explanation, he adds "P.S. These are Jewish people." 

In a 2 August 1934 letter, MacMinn requests light duty for a track laborer named Carlo DiPolo, who had "suffered the loss of one eye as well as a bad rupture, and I have noticed that he is not able to work as hard as he formerly did." Well, who among us is?

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